On Dan Savage and Martyrology

Over a year ago

by Adam Lee

Last week, as you've no doubt heard, Dan Savage gave a speech to a national convention of high school journalists in which he criticized Christians' use of the Bible to excuse mistreatment and discrimination aimed at gays. This spurred a walkout by a small group of Christian students who were in attendance, followed by a frenzy of accusations that he was "bullying" them. Here's a transcript of Savage's remarks.

I have to admit, when I first read this, it was hard for me to see why anyone was upset. Savage correctly pointed out that the Bible contains many immoral rules which are widely ignored by Christians today: rules that permit slavery, for example. He did use a mild profanity, "bullshit", which I'm sure high schoolers hear worse than every day. His use of the term "pansy-assed" to describe the students who fled was less defensible, but he's already apologized for that, and it wasn't what prompted the walkout; they were already walking out when he said it. To his credit, he's refused to retract the rest of his remarks. And why should he? They were indisputably true!

But what I overlooked was the vast persecution complex and almost parodic sense of victimhood possessed by Christian apologists, who in response to Savage's speech have collectively lost their minds. They have such a palpable need to be the victims that, whenever anything happens that looks even slightly like persecution, they immediately whip themselves into a shrieking frenzy and exaggerate what they've suffered beyond all recognition.

What this comes down to is that the self-appointed defenders of Christianity can't tell the difference between criticism of their ideas and hateful attacks on individual believers. This is nothing new, but since anti-bullying campaigns are in vogue, they've wrapped themselves in that mantle, as demonstrated by Fox News in their usual manner. We saw this as well in the Christian responses to the Reason Rally, where Richard Dawkins' call to mock and scorn irrational beliefs was immediately and universally interpreted by Christian apologists as a call to bully religious people.

I think that this hysteria arises partly from cognitive dissonance. As I said, the religious right has a need to be the victims; their holy book predicts that they will be. But this clashes with the uncomfortable reality that Christians, far from being an oppressed minority, are instead a powerful and dominant majority, and are using their power to vigorously fight minorities who are seeking equal rights. Obviously, Christians don't like thinking of themselves in the role of Rome. Their subconscious awareness of that fact creates cognitive dissonance, which they resolve by seizing on any perceived persecution, however flimsy, and frantically brandishing it. Crass political calculation doubtless plays a part as well; the religious right, stung by accusations that they encourage bullying of gay teenagers, thinks the best way to fight back is by claiming to be victims of exactly equal and opposite mistreatment.

There's one more thing I want to say, which is that what most stands out about these Christians is - and there's really no nice way to put this - their remarkably whiny and self-pitying response to criticism. Historical Christianity exalts its martyrs, to the point of lovingly cataloging their gruesome deaths and tortures, like this saint who's often depicted holding her own eyes. The Bible instructs Christians to rejoice and consider themselves blessed when they're persecuted (Matthew 5:11-12). Does this sound even remotely like the behavior of these modern-day Christians, who aren't experiencing anything nearly as bad?